1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer apparatus and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, more particularly relates to keyboard structures for portable computers such as notebook computers.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years the notebook computer has made considerable gains in both popularity and technical sophistication. One factor contributing to the increasing popularity of the notebook computer is its ever decreasing size and weight, a factor arising from the ability to fabricate various components of the computer in smaller and smaller sizes while, in many cases, increasing the power and/or operating speed of such components.
A continuing challenge in the design of notebook computers, however, is the keyboard structure. This design challenge arises from two conflicting design goals--the desire to even further reduce the size of the keyboard structure, and the desirability of having the notebook computer emulate as closely as possible the size and typing "feel" of a desktop computer keyboard. A feature which has previously been built into a desktop computer keyboard is a "sculpted" configuration in which the keyboard is upwardly and rearwardly tilted and given an upwardly concave configuration to improve typing comfort. This has been done on desktop keyboards by bending the components onto a rigid curved base structure with the keyboard remaining permanently flexed.
While this keyboard curvature is considered by many users to increase typing comfort, such configuration has not heretofore been practical in the realm of notebook or other portable computer keyboard computers due to its undesirable increase in the vertical space which would be occupied by the keyboard in the computer in its closed storage and transport orientation. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide, in a portable computer such as a notebook computer, a keyboard structure having both an upwardly convex typing configuration emulating that of a sculpted desktop keyboard, and a storage/transport thickness not appreciably greater than that of a conventional flat portable computer keyboard structure.